ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A Catholic priest was hospitalized Sunday after being stabbed, the Italian Embassy in Turkey said. Police said they detained the suspected attacker.
The assault was the latest in a series of attacks on Christians in Turkey and was likely to add to concerns about whether the predominantly Muslim country - which is bidding for European Union membership - can protect its Christian community.
The priest, Adriano Franchini, was stabbed after Sunday Mass at St. Anthony's church in the port city of Izmir, said Simon Carta, the Italian consul there.
The priest is responsible for the Capucine order in Turkey and heads the Church of the Virgin Mary in Ephesus, Carta said. He said the priest was conscious when he was taken to a hospital.
The state-run Anatolia news agency said Franchini was stabbed in the stomach but his condition was not life-threatening.
Police said they detained a man in connection with the attack, but gave no further information.
Private news channel Haberturk said the assailant approached the priest saying that he wanted information on Christianity. An argument broke out between the two shortly afterward and the man stabbed the priest, the report said.
There have been a number of similar attacks over the past two years.
In February 2006, at a time of widespread anger in the Islamic world over the publication in European newspapers of caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, a 16-year-old boy shot a Catholic priest to death as he knelt in prayer inside his church in the Black Sea city of Trabzon.
Following that murder, a Catholic priest was attacked and threatened in Izmir, and another was stabbed in the Black Sea port of Samsun. In November this year, an Assyrian cleric was abducted in southeast Turkey and rescued by security forces.
In April, three Christians were killed at a publishing house that produces Bibles. Last week, Turkey began an investigation into alleged collusion between police officers and at least one of the suspects charged in the killings. The three victims, a German and two Turks who had converted to Christianity, were tied up and had their throats slit.
Christians make up less than 1 percent of Turkey's population of some 70 million.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7157546,00.html
JPTF 2007/12/17
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